POSTGAME NOTEBOOK - Caps 6, Pens 1

Close The Door - Anyone who has watched much Pittsburgh Penguins hockey during the last decade and a half knows the Pens possess greater quick strike capability than most NHL clubs. Playing on Saturday night in Ottawa, the Penguins fell into a 5-0 ditch by the middle of the third period before rallying for three goals in a span of 4:08 to throw a scare into their hosts. The Sens scored an empty-netter to halt the uprising and claim a 6-3 win.

A night later in Washington, the Pens fell down 2-0 in the first before Jake Guentzel scored late in the initial period to cut the Caps' 2-0 lead in half, making it imperative for Washington to quell any brewing Pittsburgh comeback.
The Caps' first periods haven't been their best of late, but they were at their best in the second and third against the Pens on Sunday, making sure their guests frequently felt their physicality and spent more time than they'd have liked in their own end of the ice. As Sunday's game wore on, the Pens' weariness from having played the night before became more obvious and pronounced, and the Caps were able to gradually add to their lead and send the Pens home with a 6-1 setback.
The Caps' dominant final 40 minutes was textbook hockey against a team that had played and traveled the night before, and Washington wore down the heavy-legged Pens shift by shift.
"I thought the first [period] was probably the most competitive back and forth, and at times they had us going," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "In the second period we started to push. The third period I really like, because in the second period we turned the puck over a little bit too much, and anytime we turned it over we had to come back and play defense. I thought in the third period we played a cleaner, simpler game and were just able to push it down into their end."
With Sunday's win over the Penguins, the Caps improved to 4-1-0 on the season against their fellow Metropolitan Division denizens.
Short Stuff - Caps defenseman Martin Fehervary kicked off his team's six-goal outburst early in the first period when he scored the first shorthanded goal of his NHL career after taking a feed from Tom Wilson and beating Pens goalie Tristan Jarry on a 2-on-1 rush.
Fehervary is one of 32 rookie defensemen to suit up for duty in the NHL this season, and he is the first of that group to score a shorthanded goal this season. The 22-year-old Slovakian defenseman is averaging 18:34 per game this season, sixth among rookie blueliners in the League. His average of 1:47 per game in shorthanded ice time is fourth among freshmen defenders.
"It's a tough league, definitely," says Fehervary, who now has 21 total games worth of NHL experience. "We're playing a lot of games and I think I'm playing a lot of minutes too, so it's really hard. But I'm trying to feel every day better and more confident."
Six-Pack Attack - Washington got six goals from six different goal scorers in Sunday's game, with the middle four goals all coming at 5-on-5, bookended by Fehervary's shorthanded strike in the first and Wilson's power-play goal in the third.
The Capitals lead the NHL with 40 goals at 5-on-5, and their plus-17 differential at 5-on-5 is also tops in the League.
Secondary Modern - Caps captain Alex Ovechkin entered Sunday's game with a dozen goals and a dozen assists, meaning he had scored a quarter of his team's goals on the season and had a hand in the manufacture of half of them. Ovechkin didn't score on Sunday against the Pens, but he picked up a pair of pretty primary helpers on goals by Garnet Hathaway in the first period and Evgeny Kuznetsov in the third.
Washington's top line of Ovechkin, Kuznetsov and Wilson has been consistently torrid through the season's first 15 games, but secondary scoring has kicked in recently to fuel the Capitals' four-game winning streak. Hathaway has three goals in his last two games and Conor Sheary has scored in two straight.
"Guys are working hard and you're pushing to create," says Laviolette, "and it's nice to get guys get rewarded with offense. And we need that as well. You can't count on one line the entire year. That secondary scoring just helps move the needle in the right direction for us.
"Lars [Eller] got off the mark here, Hath's gotten off the mark, Shears is chipping in and [Connor McMichael] chipping with points and stuff like that, so it's been really good."
Deal - Hours ahead of Sunday's game, the Caps announced that they've signed center Nic Dowd to a three-year contract extension worth a total of $3.9 million. Dowd's current three-year deal expires at the end of this season.
Currently on injured reserve with a lower body injury, Dowd discussed his new deal with the media during the first intermission of Sunday's game.
"I was still trying to solidify myself when I got here [in D.C.]," says Dowd. "Obviously last year was my best year individually, and we kept our line together and Lavi gave us a ton of responsibility. Just overall, it was a great year.
"Obviously a lot of things go into it, but I think that this is a great spot to play. I've been around a couple of other organizations - and both good organizations - but this has definitely been home. My wife loves it and we love it.
"I think a big part of this deal is it takes me up to when I'm 35. If you look around the League you can look at comparables of that age, and I didn't want to have to make that choice of picking my family up for one year and move them somewhere else, and maybe look for another one-year deal at 36.
"Also, I love this team. I love the guys. The core group is obviously wrapped up for a while, and Lavi has a lot to do with it as well. A lot of factors went into it."
Dowd is Washington's only right-handed center, and his average ice time climbed from 10:18 in his first season here in '18-19 to 14:22 last season. In the two seasons since Laviolette's arrival in Washington, Dowd has been eating up defensive zone starts at a high rate, getting 86% of his zone starts defensively last season and sitting at 70% thus far this season. He has won over 56 percent of his draws both last season and this season, and his 11 goals last season are a career high.
"It's really well deserved," says Laviolette of Dowd's extension. "You really notice when he's not in the lineup and on the bench. He's a right-handed centerman, he holds over 50 percent in the face-off circle, he's a penalty killer first out the door, he is a big frame out on the ice and yet still able to contribute offensively.
"I count on that line [with Hathaway and Carl Hagelin] for an awful lot. The young guys are stepping up, which is nice. But I miss having a guy like Nic in there. I think the contract is well-earned and well-deserved and I'm happy for him."
Down On The Farm -The AHL Hershey Bears were in action on Sunday, hosting the Charlotte Checkers at Giant Center. After taking an early 1-0 lead, the Bears yielded the game's next five goals on their way to a 5-2 setback at the hands of the Checkers.
Garrett Pilon staked Hershey to a 1-0 lead at 15:39 of the first period, scoring his fifth of the season with a single assist from Joe Snively. That lead lasted less than three minutes and Hershey was down 2-1 after the first and 4-1 after the second.
With 10 seconds left in the game, Riley Sutter netted his first goal of the season with help from Shane Gersich and Toby Geisser, accounting for the 5-2 final.
Hunter Shepard (0-1-0) made 21 saves in the Hershey nets in a losing effort.
The 6-4-2-1 Bears are back in action on Saturday against the Wolf Pack in Hartford.
By The Numbers - Dmitry Orlov led Washington with 22:21 in ice time … Garnet Hathaway led the Caps with six shots on net and six shot attempts, and he also led the team with five hits … Justin Schultz led the Caps with three blocked shots.